Briefly: Education

The number of jobs being offered to American historians fell in the last academic year after several years of tepid postrecession growth, according to a recent report from the American Historical Association.

The association said 686 positions were posted as vacant on its Web site in 2012-13, down 7.3 percent from the previous year and well below an all-time peak of 1,064 offered in 2007-8, before recession struck. In 2009-10, the worst recent year for job-hunting historians, only 569 positions were advertised nationwide.

While the market is shrinking, the number of Ph.D. degrees being earned is rising. American universities conferred 1,066 history doctorates in 2011-12, the last academic year for which figures ares available, up 2.2 percent from a year earlier. — CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

12 Dutch primary schools to offer bilingual education

Twelve primary schools in the Netherlands have received permission to offer up to half their classes in English during a five-year pilot period starting in August, the Dutch deputy minister for education, Sander Dekker, said last week.

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It is “more important than ever” for Dutch children to learn to speak English, Mr. Dekker said in a press statement. In most European nations, children generally start learning a foreign language between the ages of 6 and 9, according to the European Commission. — PETER TEFFER

Scientists and engineers at Harvard have demonstrated a new type of battery that could fundamentally transform the way electricity is stored on the grid, making power from renewable energy sources such as wind and sun far more economical and reliable, the university said last week.

The battery, described in a paper published on Jan. 9, relies on the electrochemistry of naturally abundant, inexpensive organic molecules called quinones, which are similar to molecules that store energy in plants and animals, it said. — BRIAN CHILDS